The invention relates to multicolor displays constructed, for example, from discrete red, green, and blue picture elements. For example, the invention relates to multicolor liquid crystal displays.
Pixel arrangements for color liquid crystal displays are described, for example, in an article by S. Tsuruta et al entitled 37 Color Pixel Arrangement Evaluation for LC-TV" (1985 International Display Research Conference, pages 24-26). Such displays consist of a large number of picture elements (pixels), where each pixel consists of three to six color subpixels.
Tsuruta et al describe several pixel configurations. In one case, each pixel consists of a rectangular area formed by arranging a red, a green, and a blue subpixel in a horizontal line. Identical pixels are repeated in vertical columns and horizontal rows.
In another case, each pixel consists of a rectangular area formed by a red subpixel, a green subpixel, and a blue subpixel in a horizontal line, or a blue subpixel, a red subpixel, and a green subpixel in a horizontal line, or a green subpixel, a blue subpixel, and a red subpixel in a horizontal line. The three different pixel configurations are arranged in the display in alternating rows.
In a third arrangement of Tsuruta et al, each pixel consists of a red subpixel, a blue subpixel, and a green subpixel arranged in a triangular format. Finally in a fourth arrangement, each pixel consists of one red subpixel, one blue subpixel, and two green subpixels arranged in a two-by-two square.
Normally, the image information to be displayed has a much higher resolution than does the display device on which the image is to appear. Such high resolution image information is obtained, for example, synthetically (by computer generation), or from a high resolution image sensor.
Because the image resolution is higher than the display resolution, a number N of image pixels will correspond to a single display pixel. Consequently, in displaying image information on such a color liquid crystal display, it has been known to process the image by associating N image picture elements with each display picture element.
Thus, the attributes of a display pixel were determined by averaging the attributes of the N image pixels corresponding in location to the display pixel. More specifically, the red intensity of the display pixel was determined by averaging the red intensity of the corresponding N image pixels. Similarly, the blue intensity of the display pixel was determined by averaging the blue intensities of the N corresponding image pixels, and the green intensity of the display pixel was determined by averaging the green intensities of the corresponding N image pixels.
A problem with the known method of displaying a color image on a color liquid crystal display was that the images suffered from blurring. Moreover, the edges of objects in the displayed image contained spurious coloration.